Scope of Invention
The invention herein relates to shield devices which permit a medical practitioner or similar viewer to perform surgery or other tasks while being protected from the spray of body fluids or other liquids.
When a doctor is performing surgery on or examining a patient, it is not uncommon for the patient's body fluids (such as blood, urine or pus) to be suddenly ejected from the patient's body or wound. Since the doctor's face is normally quite close to the surgical incision or wound for the surgery or examination, the doctor may get splattered with that body fluid. In addition to being unpleasant and impeding the doctor's work, such fluids can be dangerous to the doctor, since the body fluid frequently contains infectious organisms which can infect the doctor through contact with his or her eyes, mouth, nostrils or skin. For instance, when a doctor lances a wound, fistula, blister or other lesion, it is common for the liquid matter therewithin to be under pressure and to be ejected in a stream or spray which may carry for a distance of several inches or centimeters.
For protection of doctors against such liquid sprays or streams, there have been a number of prior art devices proposed in the form of air shields, vacuum cabinets, transparent tables and transparent enclosures such as boxes or tents. Such have had only limited success, since they are commonly bulky, often restrict the doctor's movements and commonly require auxiliary equipment to operate, such as vacuum pumps or extensive supporting frameworks.
Most importantly, however, all previous such devices have been useable only with a patient who is at rest and maintaining substantially the same position throughout the medical require auxiliary equipment to operate, such as vacuum pumps or extensive supporting frameworks.
Most importantly, however, all previous such devices have been useable only with a patient who is at rest and maintaining substantially the same position throughout the medical procedure. Thus such devices only have been useable with surgery patients who are comatose while under anesthesia on an operating table or with dental patients who are seated in a dentist's chair. None of the devices, however, are useable with a patient who is active.
In emergency room medical practice, physicians and other emergency room medical personnel must act very rapidly to treat a patient's injury or other acute medical condition. Patients are often in highly agitated states and are only restrained from movement with difficulty. Spurting of blood, pus, urine and similar body fluids is common. There is usually no time for the emergency room staff to assemble complicated equipment such as the prior art devices to provide shielding for the physician and other members of the staff from such fluids, and in any event the violent and frequent movements of many emergency room patients would render such complex and fixed devices unusable.
Further, since the prior art devices have normally been designed to be used in the controlled environment of an operating room, dentist office or the like, such devices have not provided for rapid changing or cleaning of any portion of the device which becomes soiled or contaminated by the patient's body fluids. Commonly the prior art devices have incorporated glass windows supported by complex metal frameworks, which must be carefully disassembled, then cleaned and reassembled for subsequent use. In an emergency room situation, however, it is not uncommon to have a number of patients present all with acute injuries or illnesses who must be attended to in rapid succession. There is no time for the prior art shielding devices to be disassembled, cleaned and reassembled between use for successive patients.
Consequently, it would be highly advantageous to have a viewing device which is readily portable, has a viewing shield which can be quickly and completely changed between patients or even during the course of examination of a single patient, requires little or no supporting structure or auxiliary equipment and which can accommodate reasonable movement by patients.
Applicant has invented one device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,018 which meets some, if not all of the above-described needs not found in prior art. This patent discloses a round splash guard as part of a viewing apparatus which includes a support stand, the splash guard supporting a replaceable transparent flexible film sheet which is held in position across the open central area of the frame of the splash guard by various modes all of which include additional components which interact with the disposable film and the outer periphery wall of the frame. However, the present invention discloses an extremely simplified and unobvious variation of applicant's prior invention which not only substantially reduces manufacturing costs, but is also considerably easier to use and to change under pressure conditions such as an emergency room setting.